HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — Guam Memorial Hospital is looking to build its ranks, but recruitment and retention of health professionals continue to be challenges.
Recently, the island’s only public hospital announced job openings for all nursing and physician specialty positions, but, according to hospital administrator Lillian Perez-Posadas, it’s been a normal practice.
“We are constantly recruiting, it’s ongoing for periods. In the recent year we’ve lost 40-some nurses and, like I said, it’s a perennial challenge,” Perez-Posadas told The Guam Daily Post.
She said the nurses left GMH for a number of different reasons.
“We are absolutely hiring, it’s an ongoing process because we are losing people, we are losing nurses. A lot of nurses are flying to the mainland, to the states. We are losing to work in a different setting where they don’t have to work in the night shift,” Perez-Posadas said.
The turnover of nurses is nothing new, according to Perez-Posadas. In fact, the health professional shortage is a perennial challenge across the board going back decades.
“Ever since I’ve been working, 40 years ago as a nurse, we’ve been short nurses, short doctors, short of health professionals, radiologists, radiology technicians, respiratory therapists (and) pharmacists. We are always short,” Perez-Posadas said.
In the past, GMH has turned to travel nurses and health professionals in the community to help augment the shortage.
According to Post files, to fill the shortage of critical hospital staff, GMH has used three different agencies that employ travel nurses. However, closing the gap with off-island hires came with a price tag the hospital worked to reduce.
With fiscal year 2024 budget talks underway, The Guam Daily Post asked Perez-Posadas how much money the hospital authority would be asking for to retain and recruit hospital staff.
A response was pending as of press time Tuesday.
A person walks into the Guam Memorial Hospital entrance Sunday, July 9, 2023, in Tamuning.
